Adaptive bitrate streaming is a technique used in streaming multimedia to one or more clients over computer networks, such as can be provided according to a transfer protocol (e.g., hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)). Adaptive streaming generally operates by adjusting the rate of a video stream according to bandwidth and capacity of a respective client. The client can in turn switch between streaming at different encoding bitrates depending on available resources. When multiple adaptive streaming clients compete with each other for bandwidth at a bottleneck link, each client can have difficulty estimating its own share of bandwidth. As a result of such poor adaptive decisions at one or more clients, this can lead to instabilities and/or frequent bitrate changes that can be distracting to users.